Where's Moochie?! I'll go with Sura and Wesley in the backcourt and T-Mac, Swift, and Yao in the frontcourt. Hopefully Juwan does better coming off the bench this time.
I think the ultimate goal is to have a Sura/Anderson/T-Mac/Swift/Yao starting 5. No way is JVG going to hand the starting 4 job to Swift right off the bat, especially, when this team was clearly at its best with a healthy Howard starting at PF. In fact, it wouldn't shock me at all if Howard stays starting for most of the year. IMO, Swift is going to have to clearly show that the starting 5 has better chemistry with him in there instead of Howard.
Sura/Anderson/McGrady/Swift/Ming-- seems to me that's what it will be unless DW has a great preseason..
This MIGHT be it at the end of the season but I highly doubt this will be the opening day lineup, barring injuries. JVG will stick with his chemistry guys that was playing so well in March. DA and Stro will likely earn their way as starters a little later.
Yao, Swift, Tmac, Andersen, James for the first month or two. Yao's surgery was more of a cleanup, and he shouldn't need much to get back into it. The other three need to come back slower, and this puts less stress on Howard, Sura, Wesley with time to heal up better, especially Sura. Once Sura is solidly back then we replace him with James to start.
I agree. I actually think the starting lineup the first game of the season will be Sura, Wesley, Tmac, Howard and Yao if the team stays like this but I don't think Wesley will be a starter the whole season.
I definitely wouldn't be suprised to see JH starting at PF, but I think JVG will test out Swift at the beginning, kinda like MoT last season (hopefully with much better results).
I don't think that's a bad assessment, and here's how I look at it: 1. Howard Starts: He can hit the mid range jumper pretty well, and was it just me, but last year he seemed to suck off the bench and he did much better as a starter. The bad part of this scenario though is that last year, he proved that he couldn't protect Yao; so why should this year be any different. 2. Stro Starts: IIRC, he's actually a pretty good shooter, and his energy, athleticism and hops should compliment Yao's lack of quickness well, thus protecting Yao of any unneccessary foul trouble. I mean, this was one of the primary reason we acquired him. I do worry about JHow's production coming off the bench, but given the protection Yao factor, I'd go with option 2: Start Stro.
